Kunming (2-5)

I flew to Kunming in Yunnan province on Monday. My flight was with Hong Kong Express, which I had chosen because it was the cheapest flight that left at a time when I wanted to leave. From the plane’s magazine, I learned that it is a new airline with only five planes, planning to expand to fourteen this year. It flies only between Hong Kong and several Asian cities. Kunming is the only city it flies to in China. Like U.S. planes, it did not provide lunch but sold it instead. And no drinks were provided. But all else was fine. The seats are farther apart than American planes, which was also the case on my previous plane and on April’s planes. The sky and clouds were especially beautiful, and I had good views of the land below.

After arriving in Kunming, I took the airport bus into the city and a taxi to the guesthouse. By this time, it was 4:45 and I was hungry. Because of the holiday, most places in the area are closed. The guesthouse gave me a great map of the area. Using it, I set off for a walk to become acquainted with the area and to find food. Going up the hill, I noticed the air is thinner in Kunming and remembered that its elevation is high—6,000 feet. This took some adjustment on my part.

I found a street nearby with a lot of old buildings, some of which have been renovated and some not. I enjoyed walking down that street and found a place that sells drinks. 

Eventually, I ended out at Green Lake and decided to walk around it. The streets beside the lake were lined with lanterns. By this time it was dark and the lighted lanterns and the lights reflecting in the lake were beautiful. Half way around I came across a woman selling sticky rice in bamboo, one of my favorites in Thailand; so I bought that for dinner. It was good to be walking after the day of traveling.

Tuesday I headed to the Western Hills, the mountains outside Kunming. The guesthouse map had bus directions, and they worked well. When I arrived, a few women were pushing bus tickets at people getting off the bus. I didn’t see any buses and didn’t know what they were talking about; so I just followed the crowd, which was walking up the mountain. Later I saw the green buses going up and down the mountain. We walked along the road most of the way, sometimes having views of the lake below and the city across the lake.

The first stop was the magnolia garden. Luckily, the trees were blooming, and it was a beautiful place to sit, relax, and eat. Many people were doing that. Farther along there were two temples. When entering these, I was given the senior free entrance, which was nice. 

Huating Temple, the second one, had the arhat figures that I enjoy, as each one is different and serves a different purpose. The ones here are golden rather than painted like I’ve seen before. 

I was especially struck by the detailed painting on the guardians at these temples.

After the second temple, I took the old path through the forest to the third temple. The first half is steps up the mountain. These were challenging because they are steps uphill and because of the higher elevation. But the walk was lovely.

At the third temple, the woman selling tickets said I wasn’t old enough for free entrance; so I paid. Before leaving the temple, I had a bowl of noodles. When I left and started to put the ticket in the bin, she called me over and pointed out the other two temples that the ticket is good for. I told her I’d been to them. When she asked about my ticket, I said they didn’t give me one. When she asked how much I paid, I explained that they didn’t want money (The only Chinese I know to say I didn’t have to pay.) because of my age. Then she gave me back my money. That was nice, but what I was really pleased about was that I had communicated successfully.

At the top, the ticket seller suggested I take the cable car up, walk down, and then take the shuttle back to the central area where I could get the green bus to the bottom. That sounded like a plan. The cable car, as always, was wonderful. It goes through the forest, and there are great views of the lake and city. 

The main destination at the top—elevation 8,000 feet—is Dragon Gate, a gate and grottoes carved out of the side of a cliff. These were carved over fourteen years starting in 1781. To get to the area, the path is downhill. One section has a group of karst rocks that are called a miniature Stone Forest. Not really. Part of the path is a narrow tunnel through the stone cliff. Part of it goes along the edge. 

There is a cave grotto with figures carved in it. 

At the main gate, there were many people and everyone had to touch it and have a personal photo taken with it. So it was hard to see the whole gate. But there were good views from the other side later. And many people went to the gate and then returned to the cable cars; so it was less crowded the rest of the way down. There are a couple more grottoes and a few temples on the way down.

At the bottom, I was happy that I had a ticket to take the shuttle back to the central area, as I was tired. From there, I took the green bus down the mountain. Once there, I started looking for the bus back to Kunming. I saw a group of people who were waiting and, thinking they were waiting for the bus, asked them about it. They were waiting for their car. But they had enough room for one more person and offered to drive me back to the city. Then they decided to drive me to the guesthouse, which was really nice. The woman speaks some English and wants to improve her spoken English. I was too tired to be very friendly, but I managed to chat a bit. She wants to be email friends. We’ll see.

I tried to order the special noodle dish—across the bridge noodles—that is recommended. I had it written in Chinese, but the woman at the restaurant only pointed to the photos on a menu. Maybe that’s all she sells and I should have tried to go upstairs, but I was too tired to deal with it. (After having the dish later, I realize that one of the pictures may have been it, but I had no idea at the time.) I had noticed another café that was open, and when I glanced into it on the way back, the man said “hello.” That usually gets me to go in. It was a Muslim noodles shop; so I had noodles with vegetables.

When I was relaxing in my room, I realized that one reason I was so tired from the day’s walking was the altitude. I probably did too much, but the altitude also contributed to my more than usual tiredness. But I enjoyed the day. I had no idea what Dragon Gate was; I only knew it was highly recommended. I’m glad I made the trip, and I’m glad I walked so much, as I do enjoy the walking.

Wednesday was a slow day, which was good, as I needed to take it easy. I returned to Green Lake to see it during the day. It’s a totally different place. I’d read about the sea gulls that come to the lake between November and February. The area capitalizes on the sea gulls: A board at the entrance features 3-D sea gulls; the street lights have sea gulls. When I saw a sculpture I’d seen Monday night, I realized that it is sea gulls. 

In the morning, there were hundreds of sea gulls on the lake. People were feeding them bread, which, of course, attracted them to that area of the lake. Many people were riding paddle boats on the lake among the sea gulls. Many were walking around or standing or sitting and enjoying the lake. 

Flowering trees were in bloom. Tulips, daffodils, and narcissus were in bloom. It was a very pleasant, relaxing morning.

In the afternoon, I went to Yuantong Temple, which is the most important temple in the province. It was constructed in the 9^th century. In front of one of the buildings there were two statues of mythical animals. People would rub part of the animal, the eyes for example, and then rub that part on their body. I remember being told that this is done to bring good heath to that part of the body.

After a brief rest in my room, I went to the bird and flower market that is near the old street I’d walked down Monday evening. All kinds of animals are sold to be pets—birds, dogs, turtles, snakes, mice, rabbits. More places were open because it was earlier and, I think, because it’s the end of the Spring Festival holiday. I joined many other tourists walking among the stalls. Most of the items being sold were things I’d seen in Fenghuang—Miao embroidered bags, horn combs. I found a hat stall and bought a hat since, for some reason, I’d forgotten to pack a hat and I needed one for protection from the sun. I chatted with a woman from Gansu. Her father was looking at hats and wanted to know what “Marlboro” means. He chose the hat with the Marlboro band after I explained it.

At breakfast I was introduced to puer tea, a red tea that is a specialty of Yunnan province. I really liked it and knew I’d be buying some to take with me. In the morning, I stopped at a tea shop and priced it—220 to 350 yuan ($17 to $58) for a six-inch disk. The man at the guesthouse had told me it can be expensive but it lasts a long time. At the market, a woman was selling disks for 25 to 120 yuan ($4 to $20). I figured the cheap ones wouldn’t be as good; so I purchased the more expensive one with a 20 yuan discount.

I had dinner with an American man who lives here. He’s 69 years old and is a life coach, doing most of his work by phone with clients in the U.S. He cooked mixed vegetables—no rice—that were delicious, especially since I hadn’t had vegetables for a few days. We had an interesting discussion.